Match-up - New Jersey Devils (12-13-6) @ Columbus Blue Jackets (12-15-3)
Road/Home records - 7-8-3 -------------- 7-7-1
TV - MSG Plus, FS-O
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Season series - Blue Jackets 1-0
Last 10: Devils 4-5-1 / Blue Jackets 5-5-0
Projected starting goalies - Martin Brodeur vs Curtis McElhinney

Goals for/against per game

Columbus - 2.40/2.70
New Jersey - 2.23/2.32

Power play/Penalty Kill

Columbus - 20.4%/80.8%
New Jersey - 17.9%/86.4%

Projected lines for the Blue Jackets:

Nick Foligno - Ryan Johansen - R.J. Umberger
Matt Calvert - Brandon Dubinsky - Cam Atkinson
Boone Jenner - Artem Anisimov - Blake Comeau
Mark Letestu - Derek MacKenzie - Corey Tropp

Jack Johnson - Fedor Tyutin
Ryan Murray - David Savard
Dalton Prout - Nikita Nikitin

Injuries: Nathan Horton, Marian Gaborik, Jared Boll, James Wisniewski, Sergei Bobrovsky.

Projected lines for the Devils:

Reid Boucher - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr
Dainius Zubrus - Patrik Elias - Damien Brunner
Steve Bernier - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder
Tim Sestito - Andrei Loktionov - Cam Janssen

Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Eric Gelinas - Jon Merrill
Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky

Injuries: Ryane Clowe, Stephen Gionta, Bryce Salvador, Adam Larsson, Ryan Carter.

Some notes:

- The Devils schedule has been pretty gruelling thus far as they've played a lot of games in a short amount of time, and have already went through the western Canada and California road trips. It's starting to get a little easier now, and they're getting a bit of a break tonight as they're taking on a tired Columbus team that lost in a physical, grind-it-out-type game in Pittsburgh last night. Columbus is also riddled with injuries as they're missing two top-6 forwards, arguably their best defenseman and their starting goaltender.

New Jersey will need to play well to come away with two points, but it's a very winnable game and the Devils need to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them.

- New Jersey is under .500 on the road this season, but they have been much better away from the Prudential Center of late as they're 6-2-1 in their last nine road contests.

- After a pretty dreadful stretch where Michael Ryder was invisible more often than not, he's really come on of late. Ryder has scored in three of the last four games and now has eight goals on the season. His recent surge has put him on pace for 20+ goals. Obviously the Devils are hoping that number is closer to 30, but it's a start.

- Another Devil who's been hot of late: Patrik Elias. He enters tonight's game on a three-game point streak.

- Pete Harrold is a little banged up and will not play tonight. Luckily for the Devils Marek Zidlicky is healthy enough to play and will draw back into the lineup. Zidlicky has enjoyed great success in his career against Columbus as he's tallied 35 points in 42 games against them.

- The Devils biggest worry tonight is undoubtedly Ryan Johansen. He took a little while longer than expected to develop but he's turned into a damn good player. He has four goals and 10 points over his last seven games and has been a catalyst for the Jackets' offense.

- What I ask of viewers tonight is to watch Andy Greene and Jack Johnson very closely. Greene has been extremely reliable defensively and has 14 points on the season while Johnson has five points in 30 games and a minus-15 rating. Sadly, Johnson is somehow almost a lock for Team USA while Greene, despite being the much better player, probably won't get much consideration.

- Entering tonight's contest the Devils have a total of 109 man-games missed due to injuries, illnesses, etc. thus far. That's a lot of games.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddCordell!

Email: [email protected]